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Something's Burning E9 7a


Miguel75

6-Sep-2012
10:05:31 AM

Looks pretty groovy and run out;

http://vimeo.com/m/45194606

The first climberist breaks it down here;

http://dmmclimbing.com/news/2012/07/somethings-burning-e9-for-charlie-woodburn/


Macciza

6-Sep-2012
12:51:58 PM

On 6/09/2012 Miguel75 wrote:
>Looks pretty groovy and run out;
>
Yes it looks groovy, but not really 'run-out' unless you mean the easier 'no-big-deal' stuff at the end - the business end did not look too bad, just some uncertainty about the placements . .
>
>The first climberist breaks it down here;
>
Hmm, so how long before everyone starts complaining about the 'headpointing to death' and 'perfectly racked gear' - not to mention the lazy/selfishness of 'not putting bolts in' . . .

Mighty fine effort . . .


Macciza

6-Sep-2012
1:32:34 PM

And would love for some of these Brits to come over and have a play on some of our Aussie stuff . . .
Cul de Sac is possibly E8/9 - 7a
Gigantor maybe E9/ 6c
SH E6/7 - 6b
RTS would possibly have been E5/E6 - 6a/6b

It kinda depends on which conversion chart you use - some are very different . . .
Anybody got any better ideas on how these might translate . . .

anthonycuskelly

6-Sep-2012
1:39:01 PM

Depending on who you ask, E9 7a is only slightly bold (which is basically what he said), but I'd consider one potentially dodgy peenut at your foot protecting a 20m+ probable grounder to be scarier than I ever want to face when cutting loose on a dyno...

anthonycuskelly

6-Sep-2012
1:46:29 PM

I'm yet to find a conversion chart I'm completely happy with, the Rockfax one seems out in the lower (<20) grades, Wikipedia and thecrag seem okayish (+/-1).


Miguel75

6-Sep-2012
1:51:09 PM

On 6/09/2012 Macciza wrote:
>On 6/09/2012 Miguel75 wrote:
>>Looks pretty groovy and run out;
>>
>Yes it looks groovy, but not really 'run-out'....snip

Didn't he place 3 pieces of gear on the whole climb? Granted I'm a sooky la la but I call that slightly run out;)

>Mighty fine effort . . .

Agreed, a mighty fine effort indeed.

anthonycuskelly

6-Sep-2012
1:53:29 PM

Nah, he had a few just out of the belay too, which were what was protecting the first crux.


Miguel75

6-Sep-2012
2:07:49 PM

On 6/09/2012 anthonycuskelly wrote:
>Nah, he had a few just out of the belay too, which were what was protecting
>the first crux.

True, basically at the start of the climb, though above that there were only 3 additional pieces. Three small pieces in an ~30 metre climb still counts as run-outish in my mind.


Macciza

6-Sep-2012
2:39:40 PM

Hmm I count 4 - 2 before 2nd crux and 2 above it, then nothing in the easy bit at the top . .
plus the 3 pre-placed at the start for the first crux . . .
Not too runout I don't think - it's only the hard bits that need protecting . . .
Also 'runout' and 'dangerous' can be really subjective - it depends on the particular climber . . .

Though the uncertainty can be a real issue - will those pieces hold? Without falling on them and possibly ripping them on a headpoint attempt - you simply have to have faith that both the crux pieces won't blow . . .
When it is a complete unknown you just really need to believe in your climbing and your gear and go for it, with hope . . .

One Day Hero

6-Sep-2012
2:54:40 PM

On 6/09/2012 anthonycuskelly wrote:
>I'm yet to find a conversion chart I'm completely happy with

Why do people obsess about grade conversions? "What E grade would blah-blah australian route get?" is just dick waggling. If you want to know what E grade you climb, you'll have to go to the UK to find out. Personally, I have zero motivation for a climbing holiday to somewhere which features short routes, crap weather, crap food, and pasty women.........so I couldn't care less what E-something equates to.

anthonycuskelly

6-Sep-2012
2:55:43 PM

I'm with Macca's count, though that'd feel horrifically runout to me!

anthonycuskelly

6-Sep-2012
3:05:03 PM

ODH... personally I care because I spent 4 years there, and I like to have some idea if I'm improving or not (y'know, seeing if my own dick is shrinking or not). Some of the stuff in Scotland and the Lake District is actually longish, though you might be a while waiting for it to dry out.

One Day Hero

6-Sep-2012
3:10:51 PM

Surely the way to gauge whether or not you're improving is by seeing if your Australian grades are going up.

Trying to work out if you're better than you were 5 years ago (on a different continent) seems like a pointless exercise in retentive ego management........but maybe I'm missing something.

kieranl

6-Sep-2012
3:21:54 PM

On 6/09/2012 One Day Hero wrote:
>On 6/09/2012 anthonycuskelly wrote:
>>I'm yet to find a conversion chart I'm completely happy with
>
>Why do people obsess about grade conversions? "What E grade would blah-blah
>australian route get?" is just dick waggling. If you want to know what
>E grade you climb, you'll have to go to the UK to find out. Personally,
>I have zero motivation for a climbing holiday to somewhere which features
>short routes, crap weather, crap food, and pasty women.........so I couldn't
>care less what E-something equates to.
That's a pretty pathetic trolling effort. You off your food?

anthonycuskelly

6-Sep-2012
3:23:09 PM

Swapping continents and rock types I found messed with my head and how hard I found things, so having some idea of how someone else thought grades compared was useful (and avoided me sandbagging myself too badly). It's just an advanced version of "are Bluies grades soft?"


Macciza

6-Sep-2012
3:35:09 PM

On 6/09/2012 One Day Hero wrote:
>Why do people obsess about grade conversions? "What E grade would blah-blah
>australian route get?" is just dick waggling.

Just trying to put their grades in Australian context really . . .
Spurt climbing has changed the way we grade routes over here i think . . .
They seem to view the grade as the hardest move once they have 'dogged it to death' . . .?
Whatever happened to 'grading for the onsight'? Or 'danger' (albeit usually non-existant these days) adding to the grade?

Bringing all that into account I'd actually think Cul de Sac could be 35 as Mike suggested - an onsight would be very impressive!
Same with Gigantor - it has some hard climbing on poor rock with at times uncertain gear - very mentally challenging . . .
But 26-28R? at one stage Zac basically said it was far harder than the gr 33 sport route he was working at the same time . . .

I like the idea of grades that convey the danger/commitment intrinsic to the climb
And I wish we had more of that tradition here with X and R routes, or single to triple 'skull-and-crossbones' etc . . .
To me - physical difficulty is simple, it's just hard, that's all ..
Mental difficulty is a completely different rack of nuts - a whole different league of difficulty
Heaps of people can climb harder than gr30 these days, though very few can do it when there is potential danger . . .
These sort of gradings help delineate between the two - I'd much rather tick a 28R than a 32E(easy) because it's harder . . .

One Day Hero

6-Sep-2012
3:50:18 PM

On 6/09/2012 kieranl wrote:
>That's a pretty pathetic trolling effort. You off your food?

I'm serious, this kind of exchange rate thinking is stupid and pointless. You just go to a new place, learn the style by starting out on easy stuff, then climb up through the grades one by one till you bump into your local limit. Does that limit equate numerically to your limit at home? Maybe, maybe not, who cares?

No one posting on this thread is ever going to climb anywhere near E9, so even if you could get an objectively accurate conversion to aussie grades it would remain meaningless.

One Day Hero

6-Sep-2012
3:52:31 PM

On 6/09/2012 Macciza wrote:
>These sort of gradings help delineate between the two - I'd much rather
>tick a 28R than a 32E(easy) because it's harder . . .
>
Unfortunately Macca, you'll never tick either of those grades (or even "28E"), because you're just not strong enough.


Macciza

6-Sep-2012
4:53:17 PM

Oh really, well I was close on India and Hairline at one stage and reckon I could get back there - 28E - if I really tried . . .
And the step from 28 to 28R/X probably would not be too hard for me, given my record . . .
Which would pretty much put into E9 - ie bold 28R/X or E9 7a . . . Strength (physical) really don't come into it . . .

And considering I've already probably pushed out E6/7 6b/6c I don't think it is out of the question . . .
Though I suppose until some of the routes get an actual repeat it will be hard to know . . .
Maybe you'd like to try some of them and give a confirmation - if you're strong enough . . .

anthonycuskelly

6-Sep-2012
6:10:36 PM

I dunno, I'd rather jump straight in somewhere that might challenge me but be doable rather than either chase easier stuff or accidentally end up at the local equivalent of Taipan. Doesn't seem pointless to me, especially if you end up somewhere that uses two grading systems at the same crag.

There are 67 messages in this topic.